2020–21 Purdue Athletic Uniform Review
In the 2020–21 season, I’ve added Women’s Basketball, Baseball and Volleyball to the tracker sheet. These sports along with Men’s Basketball and Football brought the total tracked games to 103 games tracked during the season.
General
Baseball and Football share a similar data structure due to the Helmet/Hat, Jersey, Pants line up. Men’s and Women’s Basketball follows the standard kit without worrying about mixing and matching. Volleyball raises the concept of Position Jerseys — since the Libero wears a uniform different from the team.
Because of these complexities, the data is hard to draw any casual relationship from. To try and flatten this, we will primarily look at jersey/top color for the team when drawing cross team insights. For example, if the Libero is wearing gold, but the team is wearing black, this would count as a Black Jersey Game in these comparisons.
Purdue wore “MJB” decals on all uniforms during the 2020–21 season for former AD Morgan Burke, who passed early in the year.
Football
- 6 games
- 6 distinct looks
- New Uniform Piece Introduced: Black Throwback Jersey
- 2 New Combinations worn
This was the 5th season for the current football jersey, which at this point has seen all the highs and lows along with us since taking the field in 2016. Purdue, Oklahoma State, and Florida State are the only P5 schools to still wear the Mach Speed Template on a weekly basis. This template was introduced during the 2013 Bowl Season for Oregon. Florida State earned theirs as part of the 4 teams receiving them in the ‘Diamond Quest’ for the 2014 College Football Playoff.
With a ‘weathered’ uniform, it’s rare that we see a new combination, but they trotted an unexpectedly unworn combination in game one against Iowa — Gold/Black/Black. Previously the all black look had only been worn with the Chrome or Black shells, so count it.
The football team placed the MJB decal on the back right of the helmet. Similar position to the “JOE” and “DEMO” stickers for Joe Tiller and Bob DeMoss respectively.
In Game 2, Purdue wore the Big Ten Vote decal on their helmets at Illinois. This was placed in the back left of the helmet.
The biggest news was the reveal of Purdue football’s first throwback since 2010 — the 1999 Big Ten Champion Throwback.
This was unexpectedly expected, a majority of Nike schools not named Tennessee were given throwbacks last year. It was also the first time that Purdue has worn a Vapor Untouchable (VU) template uniform.
Oklahoma State also uses the VU for their throwback uniforms, Florida State is the only P5 without one.
Despite supply chain constraints, Nike’s lead time on these items likely put them in a good spot to deliver them, but also highlights the short cuts taken with them.
This Throwback was easy because it was only a single piece of the uniform that had to be created. The helmet decals have been brought out quickly time and time again, most recently as a tribute to Joe Tiller after his passing. The Gold pants were the same pair the team trotted out in week 2. The jersey was the only new piece that needed to be made.
The Number Font was recreated by an outside consultant, Adam Eargle. After reviewing archival footage of as many jersey numbers that Purdue Athletics could provide, Adam redrew the numbers and turned them into a font file so they could be worked with by Nike.
Adam began work on this in early March and completed it a couple weeks later. This means that the uniform was planned well before the season was postponed originally, and also gives us a little idea into the lead time these special uniforms have.
The number font is propriety for the Athletics department and is not what I use in my graphics. I followed a similar, less skilled approach previously when trying to create the 15, but now I use a similar font family for ease of updates.
For 2021, assuming all pieces we have seen remain an option, Purdue will have 46 possible combinations weekly. To date, they have worn 18 of these combinations and a majority of them will never see the light of day — Chome/Grey/White for example.
Looking Forward
Purdue has an incredibly fiscally conscious athletics department. Last year’s abbreviated season and income has put a need to trim down across the board and I believe the football uniforms are a good example of where we will see that.
This was the first year since the introduction of Anthracite in 2015 where no Grey uniform pieces were used. While there has been enough fan noise to remove this one from the rotation, it’s more likely that the uniforms have been worn and patched enough that they would need to be replaced to be suitable for wear. It’s just not worth the cost if no one wants to see them once a year.
Especially if this is the final year of the current jersey.
Purdue would not have done a throwback last year and then ordered a full new set of jerseys for this year, but they would have very likely started the process for 2022 by now if they are doing it.
The uniform is long in the tooth as it is, 2021 will be the 6th season of wear. Limiting the options means limiting the amount of pieces that will become practice gear or — worse — garbage at the end of the 2021–22 season. I would be surprised if even the White Pants are seen this year.
It also didn’t feature the Gold Chrome helmet which averaged 4 uses a year from 2017 through 2019. I chatted with RedZoneRecon about the costs and challenges with keeping Chrome up and running. Starting costs for these helmets run about $450-$550 for a Riddell Speed helmet, well above the $250 stock price with a standard paint option. These helmets tend to show wear quickly and can be maintained, but need refinishing annually to really work out. The costs on these tend to be well over $250 for repainting, while a normal helmet is done under $100 for all painting and facemask replacement.
More heavy hitting players may need replacements or a lot of work midseason, but you wouldn’t see the third string long snapper needing to get his checked more than during the off season so it’s not a full team replacement cost.
A full breakdown on helmets Purdue has available will come this offseason.
If the grey uniform pieces (both light and dark grey pants) and the Chrome helmet do not return, the team will drop to 13 Combinations —72% less than before.
Basketball
Men’s
- 28 Games
- 5 Combinations Worn
Matching the football program, Purdue’s Men’s team continues to wear uniforms that haven’t been updated in a minute. Since the 2015–16 season, the 5 Uniforms (Black/White/Gold/Grey/Throwbacks) have been in rotation. There isn’t inherently anything wrong with the uniform set, but an update would be nice.
Once again, Purdue’s “Home White” jersey disappeared. Once going to Conference play, the men’s team is more likely to not wear the traditional home uniform than they are. After 16 games since wearing them against Notre Dame, Purdue brought them out against Wisconsin on Cliz Night. With an important win for the Voice of Purdue Basketball, the white uniforms came out for the Big Ten Tournament and the NCAA game — not quite the same outcomes.
The Gold Jersey stays winning with an 84% win percentage (current jersey template only) and extends its win streak to 13 straight. During the Northwestern game this year, when Purdue wore gold, ESPN put the tag line of “Purdue has won 12 straight games in gold”.
The Throwbacks that everyone seems to think are cursed went 2–0 in pivotal games this last season. While they should never wear them against Michigan or Arkansas Little Rock ever again, there is no actual curse on the Three-Pete throwbacks. Sorry to break your dreams.
Grey filled in for the annual “Wear something weird against Michigan” Game. Purdue hasn’t worn a traditional home uniform against Michigan since 2015 and has gone 1–2 in that time. Michigan was the first Big Ten Team to face off against Grey in the 2011–12 season with a heart breaking 2 point loss.
Women’s
- 26 Games
- 5 Combinations Worn
The women’s program enters into a transition year before coach Katie Gearlds fully takes the helm. She inherits a team with good prospects, but most importantly some of the best uniforms in Purdue’s current stable.
With 5 looks, they have a lot to choose from. They have the traditional Black/White/Gold. They have a modern take on the grey uniform and a pink uniform for cancer awareness games — a cause close to the team’s heart after Sharon’s battle in years past.
After just updating them in 2019–20, the whole history of the uniform’s performance is tracked.
The Grey uniform has had 5 total appearances, and following the Men’s team, 3 of those performances have been against the State of Michigan. I legitimately don’t know why. When the Men’s team has worn grey in conference, 33% of the time it’s against Michigan; when the Women’s team wears grey in conference 75% of the time its been Michigan/Michigan State.
The current Pink uniform continues to struggle to find its footing, falling 0–2 this year and 1–3 overall. The vibrant Pink look, is also the only Basketball uniform in Purdue’s closet that doesn’t feature an American Flag opting instead for the Kay Yow foundation logo. Unlike other special uniforms, Pink has been worn on the road twice — Wisconsin in 19-20 and Michigan State in 20–21.
The Women’s win streak in Gold stops at 2, with a loss this year in their third overall appearance. Interestingly, the Men’s win streak of 13 started after a rough 2–3 start for their Golds, so definitely don’t underestimate them.
Volleyball
- 23 Games
- 16 Combinations Worn
- First time wearing Gold in NCAAs since at least 2015
Starting with this season, I reached out to Dave Shondell to push my luck and he was gracious enough to connect me to his staff — Amy Angelos, Rachel Coe and Martin Quinn. They were generous enough to get me photos of all the uniforms so that I could more easily create the graphics to track the team.
Purdue has a variety of years of uniforms in the closet. The Tracked shoulder striped kits debuted a few years back, but are still in rotation — the gold version of this set was given away on senior night this year. The primary set with the Purdue word mark and the motion P on the left chest tended to get the most use over the year from all positions.
Tracking with the Basketball programs, Volleyball has Black, White, Grey/Silver and Gold kits. They also have the Anthracite alternate uniform which has not been adopted as an official university color and will likely be phased out. The lighter grey/silver does align with the “Railway Gray” and in a sport where two uniforms are needed per game, having a 4th option at least is crucial.
For those who do not follow volleyball, in 2002, the NCAA adopted the position of the Libero. This position plays more of a defensive/backcourt role and can swap in and out at any time without prior notice to the officials when the ball is not in play. She does not count against the substitution limits. The uniform take on this is that to be identified as a legal substitution, she must wear a contrasting jersey to the rest of the team.
This would seem that out of the 5 options, Purdue would have 25 options on a given day to choose from. While not a perfect comparison, using the WCAG Color Contrast calculations for Web content, Anthracite does not offer enough contrast to Black — Anthracite is defined as #383E42 in the Nike web color pallet.
Using the official colors for Gold and ‘Railroad Gray”, the team’s contrast options are pretty straight forward — Black or Anthracite for the team, then Gold/White/Grey for the other. The rule does not state that the libero must have a ‘lighter’ uniform than the team, just that it must contrast; the team can wear gold while the libero wears black or vice versa.
The team wore the MJB patch on the upper left chest for the full season.
In the first round, teams did not wear the NCAA patch. Only in the Sweet 16 did teams add the heat pressed decal to the patch. Purdue wore them on the right upper chest.
After not facing it all year, Purdue did play two opponents back to back in the NCAA tournament who wore masks: Highpoint, Oregon.
Baseball
- 43 Games
- 9 Combinations Worn
- 1 New Jersey — Script White Top
- 3 New Combination Worn
Purdue Baseball enters their second season with Nike as their uniform supplier, and this year they added Nike Hats as well.
With the abbreviated 2020 season, the team did not have many opportunities to wear their new looks prior to this season. They still wore almost every usable combination in just 14 games during that time. With 3 pants, 2 hats and 5 jerseys, the team has as 45 looks, but with the “Unwritten Rules of Baseball” factoring in, many of them are unavailable — ‘You never mix White and Grey!’ according to baseball instagram.
Purdue unveiled a new “Script Boilers” White uniform top this year. The previous White uniform top matched the Gold top’s “Boilers” word mark, but had a simple black piping on the chest. This was the same look the team had used previously with Russel Athletics until the switch in 2020. The new uniform features a black/gold/black piping on the chest along with Boilers in a slightly angled upward script — black script with a thin gold outline.
The script Boilers was worn in the early 2000s, but the team had been leaning into the Script Purdue font which was similar to the 1960’s men’s basketball uniform font.
The team shows a standard pattern for their 3 day series at home and away.
On the road, they have only shown the Black Hats. The team opens with Grey Jerseys and Grey Pants. Going into the Second game, the Black Jerseys come out over the Grey Pants. Sunday road games feature the Gold top but keep the Grey Pants. The Grey Pants were worn in in 23 of the 29 Neutral/Away games this year, never worn at home.
At home, Purdue opens with their Pinstripes and Black hats. Saturday remains similar, Black Jerseys and Hats but with White pants. Sunday is for the White Jersey and White Pants. The Sunday Hat is up for change: White or Black.
It seems that in a 3+ game series, when Purdue wears White and they have a chance to win or tie the series, the White hat seems to be chosen. When the series is out of reach, the black hats remain. There weren’t enough home stands in the last 2 years (literally 0 in 2020) to confirm this theory.
The biggest uniform intrigue of the year was the Black Jersey Streak. Starting in the second game against Indiana, Purdue started throwing patterns out the window when it became clear the Black jersey had “it”.
During this run, Purdue won 8 games in Black, eventually pushing their luck by wearing it 6 times in a row until wearing it in the first game against Illinois at Alexander Field. People close to the team have said that Greg Guard and his staff are very key on keeping what is working going. They did rotate all pants during this time, including introducing the Black/Black/Pinstripe combination, but the jerseys were getting a great deal of use.
After a rain delay shortened the final weekend of the year, they equipment got all sorts of weird. Purdue opened the series with Black/Black/Pinstripes against Penn State, but after the rain delay pushed into Saturday, the team came back out to seal the deal in the full Pinstripe uniform. From a tracking perspective, the Hat and Pants each get a full Win, but the jerseys split with .5 each.
Sunday becoming a double header for Senior day was also fun. The first game against Minnesota showed Purdue wearing Gold at home for the first time under Nike. Then, after Senior day celebrations, Purdue came back out with the new White jerseys on. Both uniforms featured the White pants and the Black Hats — a first time for the Gold/White combination this year, but it was worn in 2020.
The team coming out in the new white jerseys was more special from the fact that all Seniors were given the 2020 White Jersey as a senior gift. This was a really cool way of A) honoring the seniors B) celebrating as a team C) getting rid of outdated uniforms without throwing them away.
Sources and Thanks
Special thanks to my Uniform Tracking friends whom gave advice and direction along the way for this piece.
Andrew Lind — Ohio State, SportsLogos.Net — https://ohiostateuniforms.com/
Austin Pendergist — Twitter
Chad Fields — Twitter
Clint Richardson — Twitter
Sooner Tracker — Twitter
Ole Miss Uniform History — Twitter
Hail State Uniforms — Hail State Unis Database
